The Washington critic., 1887-01-21
NO CIVIL PENSION LIST.

Government employees who have been
thirty or more years at their desks, is
natural enough supplement to the
civilservice law but as the one, at
least in its present form, ought never
TO have been enacted, so, 1t Is to be
hoped, that the good sense of Con-
gress will prevail aud spare us the In.
Fiction OF the other
Instead of deyising schemes for in.
definitely prolousing the tenure of
office and offering men inducements to
seek employment In the departments
by the assurance Of provision for their
comfortable support when incapact-
tated by age or infrmily from further
duty, Congress had far better set
fixed limit TO terms OF official service
and adopt the wholesome policy of
renovation by rotation.
There are numerous positions under
the Government requiring special traiu.
ing or expert scientic knowledge, to
which this principle might not well ap
ply because of the difficulty likely to b.
more or less encountered in filling va.
cancies with men of the required eX.
perience but we see no valid reason for
the Governments taking upon itself
the life long charge of those VIII )m It
hires TO do its merely clerical work and
who of their own option engage to doit.
1t is very true that, at this time, there
are among these large number of per.
sons who have served long and faith.
fully and have been unable TO save any.
thing out of their generally small sala.
ries others who have been compelled
by stress of circumstance to enter the
service late in life, and II must be ad.
mitted that the outlook for the declin
ing years Of such as these is anything
but hopeful or reassuring. Their case
is entitled perhaps TO special considera.
lion.
Yet In all yocations and In all places,
how many men do We find who are
similarly situated, with absolutely moth.
ing to look forward to-men and
women who have led lives of uninter-
mitting labor only to find an old age of
penury awaiting them men and women
wlo in better days have basked in the
smiles Of fortune and been blessings to
their day and generation only to be
overwhelmed by adversity at last and
taunted with the cold charity of the
world on the down hill of life. Why
should not the Government clerk
who has voluntarily entered the service
of the Government take the same
chances rs the rest of the free and in
dependent citizens of the Republic2
But granting that the Government
shold make some kindly provision for
tho'e who are now growing old and
feeble in its service, the point we de-
sire 10 make is this, that the first duty
Of Congress is not 10 perpetuate one of
the most melancholy features of the
civil service, but to prevent by sppro.
pirate legislation the recurrence of like
.xigencies in the future. This 1t can
only do by limiting the period of EN-
ployment 10 not exceeding, say ten
years, and thereby discouraging all ex-
pectation Of wintering on the Govern
ment's poor farm. Men Of advanced
age and physical decrepitude would be
gradually eliminated, without wrong
or injustice, and the younger men
be turned out to shift for themselves
before their ambition had become alto.
gether blunted.
The very worst thing the Govern.
ment can do for the young men of the
country is to tempt them with its sub
ordinate clerkships, on q guaranty of
retiring them on pension thirty or
forty years, or half century after
ward. There is no Civil.Service Re-
form in this sort of thing.
No man should be permitted to sit at
Il desk in the departments and copy
letters or add up figures for a whole
lifetime. He owes something more to
himself and to society than to enter
upon such condition of servitude.
These may not be palatabe opinions
to all, but we feel morally certain tha.
three-fourths of the clerks now in
Washington will subscribe to the posi-
tion we take and protest against being
legislaied for as beggars aud depend.
ents, whom the Government, as If for
shame at tying them down to mig.
ga'dly salaries in the days OF their
usefulness had finally condescended to
take care of when the days of theiI
usefulness were ended.
Besides, Civil Service Pension lisI
is not in accord with Republican insti
tu,ions. Neither is the Civil Service
law. The more we do away with tn,
politician, as Bourke Cochran says, th,
sooner we introduce the courtier. The
more we pattern after British ideas
the less imbued shall we become witt
American ideas.
We pension our soldiers, because o
the sacrifices they made-ihe brave de
fense they voluntarily undertook o
our imperiled Union-the blood they
shed, the limbs they lost, the shattered
frames they bore out Of the battle, Bu
here let the system stop.
IT is reported from Ottawa that th'
Dominion authorities look upon tn
policy of retaliation proposed by tn
American Congress as game o
bluff" That's about the size of 1t
tits to the credit of the Administration
that II is not disposed to approve sucl
legislation.
IT is doubtful If General Bragg oi
the House Military Committee under
stands that the amendment he reported
TO the Honse. Wednesday. TO the Senat,